After exiting business, Yowell returns to his entrepreneurial roots

Jeff Yowell is certainly having no problem keeping busy now that he's officially exited the marketing business he founded in 1992 and sold for millions in 2007.

Yowell sold Datacore Marketing to a subsidiary of international marketing giant WPP Group in 2007, in a deal that netted him a windfall of at least eight figures. The sale included an employment agreement that lasted through Dec. 31, 2013.

While offered a chance to stay with the company after that employment agreement expired, Yowell chose instead to step away so he could focus on other projects. At age 47, Yowell wasn't ready to just focus on relaxing full time.

"I knew that I didn't want to be retired and do nothing, because that's not me," Yowell said. "I also knew that I wanted to take a step back and slow down a little bit with the pace that I had been going at for the past 20 years. What that blend looks like, I'm still trying to figure out."

Yowell's activities today are a mix of personal interests and working with friends.

Yowell is co-owner of a Kansas City-based company called Mulberry South that was founded in 2012. The company serves as a consultant for companies looking for best practices in social responsibility, philanthropy and social impact. It targets three main groups: companies that are marketing products and services to mothers; financial services firms; and firms looking to improve talent recruiting and retention.

Yowell got involved with Mulberry South because he's friends with co-founder Laura McKnight, who previously worked as CEO of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. The two first met at Trinity University, and had always talked about starting a business together.

Yowell also accepted a role at Kansas City-based Frontier Investment Banking, serving as a consultant for potential business sellers and as its industry expert in the marketing field. Frontier guided Yowell's sale of Datacore, and he considers managing partner Pat Trylsa as a personal friend.

Aside from investing and consulting, Yowell is also a farmer. He purchased a 400-acre farm from his parents in 2008 and since then accumulated a total of about 1,700 acres of land in the LaCygne, Kan., area of Linn County.

"I run the farm as a business," Yowell said. "I'm known in that area as the city guy who took the time to learn the business of farming."

The farm primarily grows corn and soybeans, but Yowell saves plenty of land for hunting, which is one of his favorite pastimes. He's in the process of building a log cabin on the property as a recreation home.

He's had lots of people approach him with business offers, but he typically doesn't commit. One enterprise he did decide to get involved with part time was serving as a business adviser for a company that is producing apparel and products for female deer hunters.

"They're all activities where I saw I could add value, but that are also enjoyable to me," Yowell said.